Our Fitness Blog

Better Than Meds

I would venture to call exercise the alpha and omega of maintaining a quality life. Nothing, nothing, nothing is better than a strong healthy body that craves working out. I literally want to work out every day. I have to force myself to take rest day each week and even then I might do a three-minute quickie. Don’t get me wrong, I do take rest days because I know it’s smart, but I just love moving to deliberately see what my body is capable of as often as possible.

Backing up several years; when my daughter was four years old I saw a picture of myself that had been taken on the beach. The picture was taken from behind. I was appalled. It was a horrific crime scene of cellulite. Anyway, some of the worst moments can be the biggest catalysts for change. I haven’t stopped working out since. Twelve years later and I have noticed that all aspects of my life have only gotten better and better since I began to physically get better and better. It not only affected my physical body, but my mental health as well.

What’s amazing is, some people assume that I’ve always been fit and had good endurance, but the reality is I remember jumping rope for the first time as an adult after having two kids and feeling literally like an elephant. It wasn’t pretty. The body is capable of being heavy or light depending on your habits. I started out heavy and sluggish so I know what it feels like to want to quit and to hate what you see in the mirror. What’s also amazing is what happens if you care more about the end result than the pain of breaking out of your comfort zone.

So what is the end result? Well, for starters exercise beats aging. But get this: it beats depression better than meds and sustains the improvement, preventing relapses better than meds! It gives you feel good endorphins, so you are that bubbly person at the office. And hey, the side effect is you look sexy at the beach. If you don’t care what you look like in a bikini, please refer to sentence two, three and four of this paragraph. I personally like looking fit and feeling strong. I do it for me.

Here’s what got me really excited just recently: I read an article* that showed a study of a number of depression patients. There were three groups:

One group took meds only. (Group 1)

One group exercised only. (Group 2)

One group took meds and exercised. (Group 3)

After three months the majority of the medication only and medication + exercise groups had relapsed back into depression.

The group with the least amount of remission were the exercise only group (group 2)! It was only about 8% that had relapsed. Imagine that. Just working out three times a week regularly had helped these people beat a paralyzing mental struggle. Depression is an intangible challenge and is severely hard to deal with and yet the brain beats it best with exercise.

I find this absolutely fascinating and it makes me even more proud of the fact that our company is centered around something as wonderful as upping the quality of people’s lives.

Here’s to every mom who is her kid’s hero because she feels happy again and motivated to play!

Here’s to every dad who is his kid’s best buddy for going outside to throw the ball, whereas before he just didn’t feel up to it!

And here’s to every person who feels valuable again whereas before they weren’t sure they mattered to anyone.

Good for you! Life is meant to be enjoyed.

If you aren’t enjoying life, try adding regular exercise to your routine. I promise you won’t look back and wish you hadn’t. 9Round is a great place for this journey because our membership includes a trainer to motivate you with every work out. This gets people out of their comfort zone and into the results zone. This is why people tell their friends and why we get results for people who previously did not get them before!

If I could have a superpower it would be the ability to take every person on earth, make them routinely workout and then let them go on their way.

I know every one of them would continue doing it long after I had flown away with my magic wand. I just know it!

Heather Hudson has been with 9Round since inception in 2008 and is COO and Co-Founder of 9Round Franchising. She is a black belt in Shotokan Karate and grew up with a passion for fitness and overall wellness.